UNLESS INDYBAY RAISES $4000 in 30 days we cannot afford our web hosting and the site will go off the air.

This is serious! We are an all-volunteer collective and our costs are miniscule in comparison with the service that the website provides to the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and Northern California activist communities.

Thanks to dozens of generous donations so far we are getting closer to covering our expenses but we are not there yet.

Our New Dramatically-Increased Webhosting Expenses
We have operated for years with free hosting, but that is now coming to an end. The Community Colocation Collective has provided nonprofits with hosting since early this decade but as of February 1st 2007 it will be shutting down and websites like Indybay need to secure new hosting services. We have several options but no matter where we find hosting, we will have to pay. While we can likely get a below-market rate, due to our fiscal sponsor's nonprofit status, the going rate for the bandwidth we have been using recently will be well over $200 a month. There will likely be other expenses involved in the move and having to pay several months up front will easily require several thound dollars if we want to avoid any downtime.

The Closing of Our Redstone Office
In order to cut our monthly expenses and compensate for our increased webhosting expenses, we have decided to close our Media Space in the Redstone Building on 16th Street in San Francisco. It is with mixed feelings that we do so. The space has provided a valuable resource over the last 6 years for the public to have access to a variety of computer resources, including being utilized as a convergence space during major local demonstrations. Over time however, while free or low-cost computer access for the public has increased at other locations, we have been unable to keep our computer equipment up to date and the space has largely fallen into disuse except by Indybay volunteers. With this in mind, we have made the tough decision to close the office. Note that we will still maintain a mailing address at the same location.

Indybay Is Grassroots Media at Its Finest
The SF Bay Area and Santa Cruz Independent Media Centers are grassroots organizations truly committed to using media production and distribution as a tool to promote social and economic justice. The IMCs are a cooperative effort of hundreds of independent journalists and media activists. We are neither owned nor funded by big conglomerates or advertisers — that's why we urgently need your support now to sustain our efforts!

Indybay's popularity continues to grow and that adds to our bandwidth expenses. Over the last year, for example, Indybay has consistently served between 100,000 and 150,000 page views each and every day. The numbers continue to increase. Site visitors are currently uploading and downloading thousands of gigabytes of news reports, photos, audio, and video every month.

If you are one of the many who find the coverage on Indybay to be a useful part of your socially conscious life, we ask that you make a small donation of just $20-40. Every little bit you can give will help us maintain this website. If you are a heavy user and visit the site daily or even several times a week, please consider a medium-sized donation of $40-60. If you regularly publish to the newswire, especially posting larger media files, you can help us continue to be a great open-publishing resource by making a more sizable donation of your choice right now. Everyone who donates $60 or more during this drive is welcome to receive two Indybay t-shirts of their choice.

Limiting Fundraising Drives to Just Two Per Year
We have not made a major request for donations in almost a year but now we must ask again that fans of this site contribute what they can to keep us going. As our expenses are relatively low in comparison with the service that the website provides, we are hoping that we can sustain the website with just two fundraising drives per year in order to minimize intrusions into your use of the site. If enough people choose to become "Friends of Indybay" we may not even need to do those two.

This fundraising drive will end the minute we reach our goal of securing new webhosting without any interruption in service. Please DONATE NOW! And consider becoming a Friend of Indybay to help us secure our financing into the future.